Summertime Sweetheart (Tavros Reader)
by Todd-the-Foxx
Summary: You and your Matesprit are enduring the heat wave of the century, and decide to go swimming.


A new heat wave had just rolled into your town, and it was so hot that even the air conditioning in your matesprit's hive didn't do much to hinder the agonizing heat. You lazily wandered through the hive, too hot to hardly think. You found your matesprit in his dimly lit room, four or five fans pointed directly at him. He had his head tilted back, sweat beading down the side of his face. His arms draped over the side of his wheelchair in total defeat to the crushing heat. You mindlessly padded into the room, plopping down in front of one of the fans, enjoying the momentary relief it provided.

"Tavhun?" you panted, peeling your shirt away only to have it stick to your sweat slicked skin once more. If it weren't so hot you'd have sat in his lap, wrapping your arms around his neck. He loved it when you did that, and especially when you nuzzled at his neck. Instead, you rested your head against one of his useless legs.

"Uh, yeah _?" he replied, lifting his hand to rest it on your head, running his fingers through your hair. You inclined your head back to give him more access to your head.

"It's hot." Your mind was too overheated to form complex sentences. Tavros made a noise of agreement. An idea slowly drifted through the cloudiness of your mind. If it weren't for your groggy state you'd have jumped up in excitement. Instead, you settled for lazily, and somewhat clumsily, standing. "Come on Tavros. We're going swimming."

Like a zombie, you stumbled to the doorway, only to stop when you realized your matesprit wasn't following. You gave him a puzzling look, words not being able to push past your dry throat.

"Oh, uh, I-I'm fine. But you can go swimming if you want," he stuttered, fidgeting with the edge of the armrests. What? It was hot as hell outside. Tavros would really rather stay in this inferno rather than take a dip into the ice cold wonder that is water? Truthfully, Tavros would love to soak in the chilly coolness of a pool, but he was feeling really self conscious about his legs, not wanting to embarrass himself in front of you. Just thinking about floundering around while you laughed at him made his stomach churn.

"What? You don't wanna go swimming Tav?" you asked, a frown pulling at the corner of your mouth. He hated seeing you sad so he averted his eyes, sweeping them across the floor and focusing on a rather interesting patch of carpet. It had never crossed your mind that perhaps he didn't know how to swim. "Have you ever been swimming before?"

Tavros debated on lying to you, telling you he wasn't feeling up to it, but what if you saw through his lie? What if you began to think he was avoiding you and that he didn't want to spend time with you? He could never let that happen, so he decided to go with the truth. "Um, well, I've been swimming before, just not, um, since…..well," he dropped his gaze to his lap. Sadness pricked your heart like a tiny needle. What he was saying was he hasn't been swimming since he lost the use of his legs. Everything made sense now, why he didn't want to swim. You knew how self conscious he could be about his legs, especially with you. Walking over to him you leaned over, since standing made you too tall and kneeling made you too short to be at eye level, and took his face in your hands, forcing him to look you in the eyes.

"I'll teach you how to swim," you spoke softly, your heart filling with the love you felt for the shy, crippled troll. In his eyes you could see vulnerability.

"I-I, uh, I really don't want to be a burden." Or an embarrassment. You leaned even further forward, brushing your lips against his. A faint brown blush dusted over his cheeks at the sudden kiss.

"It'll be just you and me Tav," you whispered, making sure to capture his eyes in yours. "Plus, there's no one I'd rather spend my day with. Or my life."

This time Tavros made the first move, the brown on his cheeks deepening as he firmly took your lips with his. Such forwardness was rare for Tavros, but he was moved by your heart felt words. He kept you like that for a long moment, ever so slightly pulling you forward. He brought a hand up against your cheek, cupping your face with his feather light touch. You brought your knee up to the edge of the chair, leaning against it, placing your hands on his shoulder. He pulled you closer, deepening the kiss until the position was too hot to stay it. Reluctantly, he let you go. "O-okay."

You genuinely smiled, leaning in for one more quick kiss before you began to leave from his room, this time with a small bounce in your step. Once again he wasn't following. At the doorway you stopped, turning around with another puzzling look. Tavros was scratching the back of his neck. "What's up Tav?"

"Um, _, I, I don't own a swimsuit," he admitted sheepishly. You couldn't help but laugh at his adorableness. At least this was a problem you could fix.

"That's okay Tav. I think I may have one of my brother's old swimsuits around somewhere."

You and Tavros made the short trek to your house, which was only a few streets over. But in this heat that short walk felt like a million mile journey through the Sahara desert without any water or shade. Heat rippled up from the side walk. Were those buzzards flying above you, or were you already starting to hallucinate? You weren't sure if you were going to make it, and were ready to tell Tavros to go on without you, when your house came into view, giving you just the push you needed to make it.

Once inside the cool respite of your house you left Tavros in the kitchen to rummage through some old boxes in your closet, hoping to find one of your brother's swimming trunks. Sure, you loved Tavros, but you didn't think you were ready to go skinny dipping with him yet. After a moment or two of being shoulder deep in a box you pulled out what you'd been look for all along. You turned around to find Tavros shyly sitting in your doorway, wringing his hands as if he wasn't sure if he could enter without permission. You tossed the swim trunks at Tavros and they landed directly in his lap. He examined the odd fabric in his hands.

"You can change in my room," you informed him before grabbing a pair of shorts and a bikini top from one of your various dresser drawers. He wheeled backwards long enough for you to slip by in the direction of your bathroom before pushing himself into your bedroom. Forgetting something you stopped and turned, "Hey Tav, need any help changing?"

"O-oh, n-no. I, uh, I can manage," he shot you a reassuring smile. Even the thought of you being in there while he changed made him a stuttering mess. You returned his smile, then disappeared into the bathroom.

A few minutes later you emerged from your bathroom wearing the top to a bikini, a rather modest one by the way, and a pair of swimming approved shorts. Tavros was waiting in the hallway as awkward as ever. His eyes lit up when he came across you, looking you up and down. He'd never seen so much of your skin, but he liked it.

"Are you checkin' me out?" you teased, knowing the reaction he'd have. Sure enough, like you expected, he looked at the ground stuttering out an apology as brown bloomed across his face. You laughed, leaning down and wrapping your arms around his neck, planting a kiss on his cheek. He smiled up at you through shy lashes and for the first time you could see him in the swimwear. The brown and swirling orange pattern resembled flames. They looked nice on him. He noticed you prolonged looking.

"A-are you checkin' me out?" he teased back.

"As a matter of fact, I am," you replied, ruffling his mohawk. He smiled, flushing a little more. You took hold of the handles on his wheelchair and began directing him towards the back door. "Come on Tav, let's go swimming."

Once outside the unrelenting heat took hold. You were glad you'd already applied sunscreen because the blinding sun was as radiating as ever. Holding a hand above your brow so you could see you looked back at Tavros, who was pulling his shirt over his head, revealing a smooth grey chest.

"Uhhh, _? Can I get a little help? I-I'm kinda stuck," he called out from beneath his shirt, which had caught on his horns. You laughed as you gently disconnected your matesprit from his shirt. Once free he smiled up at you shyly. "Thanks….Can you, um, help me get into the pool now?"

You rolled his wheelchair as close to the pool as you could, letting him wrap his arms around your shoulder as you helped him slide into the pool. He sat on the steps, moving his legs around as much as he could, enjoying the icy chill of the water as tiny waves crashed against him.

You hopped into the pool after him, hissing in sudden shock as the cold water clawed at your stomach like icy shards of glass. "Coulda told me it was cold," you chided.

"Oh, uh, s-sorry," He laughed. You splashed water in his face, and after a moment of instinctive shock, he splashed back, opening up as a full laugh escaped his lips. You dove out of the range of his splashing, coming up with rivulets of water cascading down your body. Tavros thought you looked absolutely beautiful with the sun shimmering off water droplets that clung to your skin. He had the sudden and embarrassing urge to lick every droplet off of your skin.

"Come on Tavros. Time to teach you how to swim." Your eyes held a mischievous glint as you tugged his hand, pulling him off the stairs.

You spent the next hour or so teaching Tavros how to swim with only his arms, paddling from one side of the pool to the other. He watched the way you moved and how gracefully you twisted and turned in the water. He was certain the if you were a troll you'd be a seadweller. He, however, was obviously not, clumsily splashing around in what could somewhat be taken as a form of swimming.

"It's just like treading water, except you have to stroke outwards and down at the same time," you instructed, leading by example. You showed him how to move his arms without using your legs. He tried it out, replicating it not nearly as gracefully as you did. He managed to keep his head above water, though his chin did go under a few times. He had to admit this was rather fun, and a refreshing way to cool off. If only he could find a way to pay you back.

A figurative light bulb went off in his head. He tried to hide the ingenious smirk that threatened to reveal his intentions as he paddled to the side of the pool panting heavily. "I'm, uh, a little tired. Can we take a break?" he asked gripping the side of the pool for support.

"Of course," you breathed. Truthfully, you were getting a little tired yourself. You swam to the wall next to Tavros. You'd barely touched the wall before you noticed two grey arms on either side of you holding onto the wall. You twisted around and came nose to nose with a blushing Tavros. With nothing else to hold onto and with no room to swim you held onto Tavros's shoulders to stay afloat. Your heartbeat quickened as Tavros subtly pressed you against the wall and you were comfortably sandwiched between the cool, smooth surface of the pool's wall and the warm wet body of your matesprit. This time it was your turn to stutter. "W-what's up Tav?"

"I just wanted to thank you," he calmly stated, eyes focused on your lips, though they quickly flickered up to yours. "Uh, i-if that's okay with you."

"Thank me for what?" you squeaked, though you found yourself nodding assent to his previous question.

"For having red feelings for me," he whispered, leaning forward. You found your eyes sliding close as warm lips firmly locked to yours. Tavros rhythmically moved his lips against yours, tilting his head to fit more perfectly against you. You found yourself mimicking the action as you melted into the heat of the kiss. Without even asking for permission Tavros slid his tongue into the cavern of your mouth and entangled it with yours. You blushed, heat rising up from your core. Such forward actions from Tavros were rare, if nonexistent. He pressed his body closer to yours, the cold of the water mingling with the warmth coming from your skin. He continued to his venture inside your mouth, twisting his tongue around yours in the way he knew you loved. Tavros untangled his tongue from yours, pulling it back into his own mouth before nipping at your lower lip. You took his lips once more, the two of your firmly pressing into each other in a fight of dominance, which, surprisingly, he won. He pulled back, half lidded eyes smiling in delight as he trailed kisses across your jaw and down your neck. Tavros had such a tender and teasing way when it came to how softly he'd kiss the sweet spot on your neck.

"Mmmmmn, Tav," you moaned, slowly stroking the hair of his mohawk as he gently nibbled on your neck. He softly sucked on the spot, sending a pleasurable shudder down your spine. After a few long moments of his soft biting and your whimpers of enjoyment he moved up to your ear, nibbling on the edge of the lobe, driving you crazy.

"_, what was that word humans use?" he whispered before continuing to bite. You tried thinking back to the last time he'd asked you about a word, but you were slightly distracted at the moment. Eventually a memory pulled through your hazy mind.

"Love?" you asked. He nodded, pulling back to look into your eyes. Your heart skipped a beat as he pressed his forehead against your, locking stares.

"Yea, that one," he smiled, rubbing his nose against yours and then lightly pecking at your lips. When his eyes met yours again they were completely serious. A long, drawn out moment of silence passed between you, only broken by your shallow breathing and the sound of gently lapping water. "I…" he began, but trailed off.

"What?" you asked, completely mesmerized by your matesprit. His eyes drifted away for a moment. He wasn't sure if he could force the sentence through his vocal chords. Gog, he'd never been so nervous. If it weren't for the water he'd probably be sweating. He turned his eyes to yours once more, at a loss for words as he lost himself in those beautiful orbs, but at the same time knowing what he wanted to say.

"I love you," he whispered almost inaudibly and you could've sworn your heart stopped. The world seemed to slow its rotation and everything except Tavros seemed to fade away. Here you were, wrapped in the arms of the shy, soft spoken troll you adored more than anything else in this world. And he loved you. You felt like your heart would explode from this sudden bubbling warmth and at that moment, transfixed in his gaze, you knew.

"I love you, too, Tavros," you replied. He smiled, this time gently, passionately kissing you. He never wanted to let you go, and you never wanted him to. You wanted to stay just like that, locked lip to lip, heart to heart. There was no one you could ever love anything more than the crippled troll you'd do anything for.

"Hey, _? Can I stay the night?" he asked shyly when he finally dared to pull away. He couldn't bear to be apart from you, not now, not ever. You nodded, kissing him again.


End file.
